Verdict / This application occasionally rises beyond its average capabilities.

Sync Now!isn’t as versatile as some of the other sync software we’ve reviewed, but it does have some advantages. It will be of most use to users that need to carryout real time synchronizations over a network or between hard drives. We were satisfied with Sync Now!’s overall performance and appreciated its straightforward user interface and fast sync times.

Features

Most of the requisite features we expect from a reliable sync program are included with Sync Now!—scheduled syncs, file replication, bi-directional synchronization, file verification after sync, and folder-by-folder sync exclusion and inclusion. To get a better handle on the exact parameters of a sync, we found Sync Now!’s preview mode to be a real timesaver. We also like Sync Now!’s scheduler. It’s possible to create multiple profiles for different times of the day, week or month along with options to initiate sync at startup or shutdown. It’s quite easy to create one sync profile for every Friday that includes everything on the hard drive while running a daily sync for just a “My Documents” folder.

Sync Now! is particularly useful for backing up data. We would suggest scheduling a weekly or monthly ZIP backup to a hard drive partition or external drive. There is the option to do a full backup or to simply modify files that have changed. A ZIP backup compresses your data so it won’t consume all of your spare gigabytage.

One disadvantage of Sync Now! Professional is the fact that you can only synchronize 5GB of data at one time. If you need to carry out larger syncs you can purchase Sync Now! Enterprise for twenty dollars more.

Ease of Use

Sync Now!’s user interface is intuitive and will be familiar to anyone who has ever used an internet browser, word processor or basic utility like compression software. Basic functions are displayed across a toolbar on the top of the window. Real time syncs, scheduled syncs and the data log are accessible with a single mouse click. For a sync between a PC and a hard drive, all you have to do is select source files/folders and a destination folder.

Support and Documentation

Sync Now!’s customer support network is lackluster, to put it mildly. Their website includes a so-called “FAQ” that answers nine basic questions. If you need help beyond that, they do offer online support.

Summary

Sync Now! is an unremarkable yet effective solution for basic PC-to-PC and PC-to-device synchronization and data backup. Sync Now!’s feature set is well rounded, we particularly appreciate the real time sync option. Its user interface is simple, although a few key functions are difficult to figure out. No coherent customer support network and a lack of advanced synchronization options are some of the disadvantages of the otherwise competent Sync Now!